Thank you Eugene for appreciating this neighborhood walk.

This was actually sort of our extended neighborhood when we lived in HK from 1979-84, we lived up the hill from a place called Causeway Bay, which is to the east of Wan Chai, while I worked in Central, which is to the west of Wan Chai, so we traversed through this area basically on a daily basis and got to know at least some corners of it quite well. Mind you, that was in the Eighties, and much has changed since then, especially with the land reclamation projects that kept extending the area of Wan Chai.

Thank you Bruce, glad to see that you enjoyed this set! and welcome aboard again on the last leg of our long tour!

Thank you Rowedean, Hong Kong has plenty of great buildings, frequently they are constructed in clusters on new land reclaimed from the harbor and are sort of an island with modern structures set apart, while other areas have much older and not necessarily all that well maintained buildings, especially when it comes to external structures. The hot, humid climate that Hong Kong experiences for about 10 month of the year (after all HK still lies just within the tropics) is very tough on unprotected building structures, such as bare concrete. The newer or renovated buildings are often clad either in glass or have the facades covered with tiles, which withstand the tropical climates better. Thus in this particular image #1, you see the old style buildings with rather weathered walls on both sides of the street, while that one glass-enclosed building reaches into the sky. I am not quite sure at exactly which location this photo was taken, but it looks like that there are more modern buildings behind that green glass-enclosed structure.

This juxtaposition of old and new is something that is very interesting in HK, just like the co-existence and intermingling of the Chinese and English languages give it also that special character. I am happy to hear that you enjoy these images and I will be presenting more of both the modern and the ancient as well as intermingled architecture over and also quite some landscapes over the coming weeks. Glad to have you aboard the tour again, Rowedean!

Thanks Rob, good to know that you appreciated it!

Yes, plenty of extra work in the morning and evening, but I guess like in any routine job, they become experts at it!

Great composition John! - but even in sepia it looks like it could use a good (sepia) paint job!

Very nice shots of this little beauty, Jim!

Nice clear shots, Mike! - these Canadian compatriots of mine are sure everywhere!

Very nice captures, Dan!

Thanks Rob, yes, these colors and textures is what draws me to the open air street markets, I can never get enough of them and I am afraid, you are going to see a bunch more here in Hong Kong as we move from town to town, particularly out in the more rural "New Territories". I actually don't know for sure, but here is what I am thinking: Some of these markets are permanent markets that are open every day, for these markets I assume that the stands will remain overnight and only the goods are removed. Other markets, particularly out in the New Territories, can be periodic markets, say only on certain days in the week, here I would assume that the structures are removed and rebuilt each time. We have frequently seem the same thing in Paris, one of our other beloved and much visited cities, where they have a strong tradition of rotating street markets and these are all dismantled and rebuilt daily. Interestingly, we have visited markets on different days at different locations and seen some of the same vendors again and again.

Thanks Mike, you certainly got that right!

Thanks Rob. There is definitely a lot of diversity in this city. Actually, I am not all that happy with #8, but decided to leave it in the presentation as the playground is one of the few "gaps" in this very densely packed part of the city to show the surrounding buildings. The reasons that I am not all that happy is that one, from a technical point of view, I did not do any perspective corrections at that time and also that I should have shown a bit more of the foreground at the bottom of the picture. This is called a "playground", but it really rather is a "sportsground" with outdoor basketball courts and even mini soccer field. I had space constraints at that time, if I would take this image now, I would "stich" a few shots together to better show the entire picture - and definitely also straighten these buildings!

Thank you Kip, it is nice to be back in action again and nice to see your comment as well. These bamboo scaffoldings are really quite a sight on these tall, modern building sites.

Thanks Kathy, for looking in on the tour again. Glad to hear that you enjoyed this set with the buildings and the aspiring photographer.

Thank you Ken, glad you found these interesting.